The 6.3-acre Metropolis project designed in the late 1980s that stalled in the 1990s and mid-2000s is now part of the revival of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles Times, the $1 billion “city within a city” is being created by Greenland USA, a Chinese development firm. Greenland expects the four enormous buildings that make up the hotel, condominium and shopping complex to be completed by 2018.
While this 2018 deadline may sound ambitious, Greenland started excavating the site last July and has been on schedule to date. This efficiency has required three cranes working on the hotel and condo tower when one crane per building is typical. The first phase will include an 18-story, 350-room hotel and 38-story condo tower with 308 units. More than half of the condos have committed buyers. Although developers usually wait for condos to be sold before building more, Greenland is already working on the second phase consisting of two more high-rise condo towers with approximately 1500 units.
The 18-story, 350-room hotel will be the Hotel Indigo operated by InterContinental Hotels Group. This should be open by the end of next year. According to Elie Maalouf, chief executive of the Americas for InterContinental Hotels Group, “Downtown is in the midst of a thriving resurgence. We think Hotel Indigo is very well positioned to serve that economic growth.”
Hotel Indigo is considered to be a competitor of the W Hotels & Resorts chain operated by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. Not to be outdone, W Hotels & Resorts has agreed to open its third Los Angeles property in the same area as Hotel Indigo. The new W will be a 250-room hotel. Both W and Indigo are pitched for younger travelers and have unique designs that reflect their local settings.
Once the Metropolis project is complete, visitors and Angelenos will have more choices for shops, restaurants and places to stay set in buildings that will help transform the downtown skyline.
For more information, see W Hotel and Hotel Indigo.
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Ryan Lahti is the founder and managing principal of OrgLeader, LLC. Stay up to date on Ryan’s STEM-based organization tweets here: @ryanlahti
(Photo: Downtown LA, Flickr)